my departure and arrival

I flew out on Wed. afternoon and heeding the guidelines to be there early, I was at the airport a full 3 hrs before departure. In typical Edmonton fashion, the United gate was not even staffed yet for the LA flight. After I got my boarding pass, wiped some tears as I hugged my parents and trusty cousin, I went through customs.

When I obtained my Immigration visa the last time, the officer had stapled the required I-94 into my passport, EXCEPT, he wrote the expiry date as June 4, 2006 instead of 2007 which would have been 1 year from that day.

In typical Vien luck, I knew this would cause me grief or a slower processing time each time I go through Customs. It happened last time I returned from my brief road trip at the Mexico-USA border and the same this time.

However, the new officer said that he made mistakes with dates like that too so he changed the 6 in 2006 to a '7' with a pen on my visa. I was concerned that it would look like I had doctored it which in the future could easily mean even more grief. So the officer agreed and got me a new I-94 which he again stapled into my passport after tearing out the last one. He also made some clear affidavits as to why there is a new stamp and I-94.

I felt like this would be better too (foreshadowing, remember for next blog post...) and went off my merry way to wait a whole 2hrs at the terminal. In typical Edmonton fashion, there are not much fliers, so I had more than ample time to get through everything. I shouldn't have gotten there that early, I'm not much of a 'waiter'. :)

Once I arrived at LAX, which is a city unto itself, there was not much guidance as to how to connect to your next flight. I came in on Air Canada and was going to fly to Tucson on United, so it dawned on me that the reason I did not see my connecting flight on the departure terminal screen was because I was in the wrong building. So after asking more than a few times, with different replies, i was finally directed to a shuttle which took me to the United terminal.

It was supposed to be a 1hr connecting time as the flight would be leaving soon, but my flight was the only one flashing on the terminal screen that said it was delayed due to 'aircraft servicing'. What the heck is that? Why do they even tell fliers that? Wouldn't it cause distress?

As for me, the only distress it caused me was that it meant more waiting time. It was a total of almost 3 hrs waiting time. I got pretty bored. :)

I remembered a few times in the past when I flew into Edmonton in the winter, I always wondered out loud...who would live here? Picture it, the plane flies over miles and miles of frozen tundra, and then out of nowhere would there be the blinking lights of life, signs of people who choose to live in seemingly nowhere, in isolation. (ok, slight exaggeration)

It was with this same wonderment and sinking feeling that entered me as our little plane flew into Tucson, well past 11:30pm. There was miles and miles of utter darkness (total desert) until the blinking lights of little Tucson welcomed the plane and my lurching heart into seemingly nowhere....(thanks for reading, to be continued..haha)

Grace to you, Vien